A Gazette editorial from the Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Most top GOP leaders denounced Donald Trump as a shallow demagogue unfit for the presidency. Most national polls indicated he would lose.
Yet, incredibly, he carried the nation, and will be America’s next president. What a stunning development. Nearly everyone underestimated the depth of white working-class anger and ethnic resentment that carried him to victory.
At this point, reality must be accepted, as both Hillary Clinton and President Obama counseled on Wednesday. Trump will lead America for the next four years. Everyone who cares about the United States must adapt, serve and minimize possible damage from this shift.
What will a Trump presidency mean for West Virginia?
Throughout the campaign, Trump vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act that enables 20 million Americans to obtain health insurance, and thus access, to health care. That includes more than 37,000 people in West Virginia so far, plus more than 150,000 through the Act’s Medicaid expansion? The Affordable Care Act also protects people from losing their health insurance because of a pre-existing condition. Trump has not said what he would substitute to meet this vital need.
When Trump thrilled spectators at the Charleston Civic Center during West Virginia’s May primary election, he promised:
To get rid of “these ridiculous rules and regulations that make it impossible for you to compete.”
To put a 35 percent tariff on re-imports from American companies that move factories to Mexico.
To renegotiate trade deals to “bring jobs and money and economics back to our country.” He called the North American Free Trade Agreement “probably the worst piece of economic development.”
With Republicans in total control of all three branches of the federal government, Trump can do almost anything he wants. We hope victory softens his irresponsible rants and makes him more judicious. He certainly sounded so in his victory speech on Tuesday night: “Now it’s time for America to bind the wounds of division; have to get together. To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people. It’s time. I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, and this is so important to me.”
Claims of “He’s not my president,” are no more attractive now than they were when aimed at President Obama. As President Obama said on Wednesday, “We are now all rooting for his success in uniting and leading the country.”